The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-12-28

ION upon some OF unem DrleHy-llus
bringing them before your minds-and
leave opportunity for you to enlarge
and improve upon them.
1t need not be thought strange that
temperance, being one of the foremost
questions of the day, at once presents
itself for consideration. This cause is
gaining so rapidly that if some of us
are not careful we shall not get there
in time to share the honors, and then
we will be in worse predicament than
the man of whom you have heard who,
when his home was invaded by fero-
cious beast, retreated to the loft, drag
ging the ladder after him, and COM
PEELED his wife to fight the monster
alone; and after she had found herself
equal to the occasion, and dispatched
the animal, came down, clapping his
hands, saying: Didn't we do it,
Betsey?" The subject of temperance
is one in which we are all interested,
for whose home is not in danger? And
there is no neutral ground here upon
which one can stand. The truth is the
time has come when no Christian or
moral person should wish to be neutral
for who of us would like to say, as Cain
of old, Am l my brothers. keeper"
In noticing more particularly the con-
&c Of a;r ,to;, ~; %,
with reference to this subject we find
that at least one thousand barrels of
cider were made last year in Ryegate
and vicinity-six hundred barrels at
one cider-mill, and that not the largest
one. From five to eight per cent at
least of this fluid is alcohol. so we have
one hundred twenty-five barrels Cor
four thousand gallons) of alcohol dis
tributed among our citizens in one year.
Do the farmers who furnish the apples
ever stop to consider this matter, or
are they willing to take upon them
selves the responsibility of provid-
ing the means by which some one's
boys, if not their own, may be tempted
from the path of honor and sobriety,
an ungovernable appetite created and
in the end another victim be added to
the already frightful list of sixty thou
sand who annually fill drunkards' graves
in these United States? We leave this
subject for your serious consideration
and to act upon as your good judgment
will dictate.
We now turn our attention to that
still unsolved problem, "How to make
woman's work easy" for who that is a
busy housewife can keep that subject
long out of mind? She can not even
try to write little article for the
farmers meeting without being sub
iected to innumerable Interruptions
from one source and another, until she
is ready to give up and declares I'll
not try it again." But she does. A
great deal has been spoken and written
of late upon this subject without
materially improving the case in hand.
The question is yet open for discussion
and we women still find ourselves over
burdened with cooking, washing, mend
ing and general homework. To my
mind there is no solution of this prob
lem except by return in great de-
gree to the primitive simplicity of our
forefathers-or rather foremothers-
who could wear a plainly made print
dress on almost any occasion, and whose
husband and children dined contentedly
on barley broth and nothing else at
that meal, or potatoes and meat, with
bread and butter, another day, and for
supper had a large pan two-thirds full
or more of pudding with some milk
poured over the top and placed in the
middle of the table-each member of
the family provided with a spoon with
which to help themselves. You see
there would not be many dishes to
wash. Our good mother generally al
lowed each of us dish apiece as well
as a spoon. l remember hearing an
uncle tell about working for an old
lady who was real good, though not
over and above neat, and at supper she
took the spoon she had used to scrape
the kettle Tapped it little and passed
it to him, saying: Here's clean
gin ia you, jamie" / also recall how
/ was amused at hearing one of the
schoolmates of my early years saying
Ma'am don't make pie very often
but when she does it is something
worth while, for she makes it in tin
pan" contrast that with the state.
ment i'll later years of a poor, tired
woman, who said, half complainingly
half triumphantly: eve ate thirty
pies last week" How much more good
sense the boys mother had who made
the big pie once in great while. Now
although we do not altogether advocate
the pan of pudding and milk arrange
ment or the spoon-lapping perform
ance, we do say that until we are
willing to give up our desire to emu
| lat nr surpaes ollr paiuhh nra in lraSe